Game Images
Here are visual references and descriptions of everything that you may use as a basis for your roleplaying experience. The Ring The ring world, or phase-ring as it's come to be known as, is a mega structure encircling a small sun in a galaxy far far away. (Har Har) The ring itself is massive, with a circumference of 6×10 miles around, a width of a million miles and a depth of a thousand. Essentially, it has enough space to fit the area space of three million earths inside. The main headquarters of all those drawn to the ring is located in sector 1, of thirteen. The sectors are all about the same size and differ little in climate, mostly temperate zones. Larger sectors contain more water then land mass, as they are the great oceans of the ring, larger then any other body of water on the ring, which are much more comparable to earth's waters. These waters are largely unexplored and highly dangerous. The red sectors illustrate the areas effected by the recent asteroid impact on the ring. They are, for the time being, uninhabitable. Picturing the Ring It is difficult to get one's mind around the scope of the Niven Ring and how it works. For the benefit of myself and any one else boggled by the concept, I present these quotes by Larry Niven himself, describing his Ringworld as seen by the main character of his story, Louis Wu. All the following quotes are by Niven, from his book '''Ringworld' published by DelRay. This is basically how our characters will experience the Ring.'' ~ "The Ringworld had no horizon. There was no line where the land curved away from the sky. Rather, earth and sky seemed to merge in a region where details the size of continents would have been mere points, where all colors blended gradually into the blue of sky. The vanishing point held his eyes fixed. When he blinked, as he finally did, it was with deliberate effort." ~ "Darkness fell quickly. A black shadow swept suddenly across the giant mountain. In seconds it was gone. The sun was only a golden sliver now, cut by blackness. And something took shape in the darkening sky. An enormous arch. Its outline grew rapidly clear. As the land and sky grew dark, the true glory of the Ringworld sky emerged against the night. The Ringworld arched over itself in stripes of baby blue swirled with white cloud, in narrower stripes of near-black. At its base the arch was very broad. It narrowed swiftly as it rose. Near the zenith it was no more than a broken line of glowing blue-white. At the zenith itself the arch was cut by the otherwise invisible ring of shadow squares." ~ "The shadows were funny; the light was funny. Louis looked up and found a white sliver of noonday sun... To his left all was darkness, deepening with distance. The missing horizon was a blackness born of night and chaos, beneath a navy sky in which outlines of the Ringworld arch glowed faintly. To the right, spinward, was full day. Dawn was'' different'' on the Ringworld." ~ "At the zenith swarmed a ring of black rectangles. The one that hid the sun was framed in a pearly coronal glow. The blue Ringworld formed a paraboloid arch over it all, framed against a star-dotted sky. It looked like something done with a Build-A-City set, by a child too young to know what he was doing...Now, overhead, a brighter glow along one edge of the central shadow square showed that dawn was near... The line dividing day from night is called the terminator. On Earth, the terminator is visible from the Moon; it is visible from orbit; but it cannot be seen from the Earth's surface. But the straight lines dividing light from dark on the arch of the Ringworld were all terminators. From spinward, the terminator line swept towards the flycycle fleet. From ground to sky it ran, from infinity-port to infinity-starboard. It came on like destiny made visible, a moving wall too big to go around. It arrived. The corona brightened overhead, then blazed as the withdrawing shadow square exposed a rim of solar disc. Louis contemplated the night to his left, the day on his right, the terminator shadow receding across an endless plain. A strange dawn, staged for Louis Wu the tourist." The Complex The base of operations for our heroes. Prior to an asteroid punching through the complex stood alone with valleys of lush vegetation at it's border. Since, the computer has recalibrated the arrangement of worlds to stem off from sector one, rather then in seemingly random locations around the ring world. Several of these worlds were merged with the starting point, of New York, such as Haddyn, a future version of New York taking up much of Harlem and the upper east side. A piece of London now occupies Queens, as is much of New Jersey and Brooklyn are occupied by Gotham City. these areas stretch out for several thousand miles, taking up the area space of at least five complete Earths. While that seems small considering the massive structure itself, there are still unexplored sectors and unknowns out there in the ring that are still out there, despite the new additions clustering and spreading out from sector 1. The Complex itself is stretched both above and below ground in New York's upper west side. There are three housing towers on Central Park West, bordering the park itself and occupying buildings behind on the same city block. Besides housing, the above ground segments of the complex have entertainment, dining, and physical health areas, including a small infirmary in each of the buildings. The complex has been fully integrated into the new york system. What might have been an apartment building or an office building is now occupied fully by the phase personnel. They are also connected Via skyway system, the five buildings above ground. The only way to access the buildings are via the computer's visual scanners, which work instantaneously, like a personal key card. why people like the Joker can't get into someone's room at night. The rest of the complex, which in of itself is massive, is underground, along with all the advanced technology. The computer itself resides below ground in an undesignated location. It is accessible by the Grid which is wired directly into each section of the complex at terminals and smaller computers in each quarter room. Below ground, and closer to the Hudson river, are hangers and garages, which lead either directly to an underwater launching pad, or the streets above. The subway system runs above the complex in most areas where it's an issue. Personal Quarters Each character has the choice of rooming with someone or lodging alone. How your apartment looks is up to you as far as layout goes, but be realistic. The first picture below should give you an idea of what space you have to work with. Please be sure to mention either IC or OOC to your RP partner what your living area looks like so there isn't much confusion in regards to that. Just makes gameplay easier, is all. Also, these images are a general representation, so feel free to make changes based on your own needs, but please be realistic. Entertainment Areas. The entertainment areas are fairly generic. There's a game room, a bar, and a pool, each of which could be used for entertainment. There's even an auditorium with a proscenium thrust stage for lectures, theater practices, or private screening of films, if desired. The bar has it's own sound system and a grid terminal, as well as a fully stocked kitchen and bar, though occasionally stocked with food or drink that is clearly not originating from planet Earth, oddly enough. There is also a small stage and a small arrangements of couches and tables for lounging about. A game room next to the bar provides several means of entertainment, electronic or drawers of small table games, of all kinds. Pool and darts also take up space in this area. Lower Complex Here is where you will find the high tech and the inner working of the computer's operation. While everything you need to live is above ground, everything you need to geta round is below ground. There are transporter rooms ala Star Trek, conference rooms with holographic interface, storage units, training facilities, and underground workshops and garages for the more inventive. There are also a string of hangers for any vehicles that the characters might take home with them. There are no shortage of tools for working, but there don't seem to be any raw materials to speak of, especially of the more rare, or world specific variety; characters will have to handle that on their own. Armory This is a more elusive section of the lower complex. It's hard to find and hard to get into, even for the more noble of crew members. Also, it's here that many weapons, gadgets and gizmos might be found, including some familiar toys. IE. here you might find a sword that you would have had at home, or perhaps a gadget that you used in canon. The catch is that these weapons may be out of ammo, (There is ammo available for some models), rusted, or even broken, things that have been there for sometime will be needing refurbishing. Some of the weaponry or devices you may find there are world specific, as previously stated, but there are also some new discoveries. It is a powerful collection of technology, only to be wielded by a responsible few.